Utah Jazz Trade Predicted to Be Among Worst of NBA Offseason

The Utah Jazz made a couple of interesting trades across the 2025 offseason that shook up the outlook of this roster heading into the next regular season.

But among those moves, their decision to ship Collin Sexton to the Charlotte Hornets drew some of the more notable attention across the league, and more importantly, questions as to why the Jazz would ever pull the trigger on it.

Not for the reason of trading Sexton; that was a pretty expected move from the Jazz front office this summer. It was what Utah landed in return for their veteran guard from the Hornets in Jusuf Nurkic, which even saw the Jazz forfeiting one of their own second-round picks in the process.

The Jazz's move even found itself among the predicted top five worst moves of this offseason in the eyes of Bleacher Report's Greg Swartz, with the idea of buying out Sexton even getting looks as being a better concept than their trade to land Nurkic.

"Congratulations to the Utah Jazz for swinging one of the most baffling trades in recent memory," Swartz wrote. "By flipping Collin Sexton for Jusuf Nurkić, they gave up the better player, on the cheaper contract, while also including a 2030 second-round pick, which will be the more favorable of the Clippers' or their own. This move is mostly justified as Utah clearing court time and touches for rookies Ace Bailey and Walter Clayton Jr. Sure. It's not like buying out Jordan Clarkson helped that process or anything. And even if this is the motive, why are the Jazz surrendering the pick here?"

"Keeping Sexton as an expiring contract to move at the deadline would have made more sense. Heck, buying him out and taking the roster spot would've made more sense," Swartz wrote. "Somehow, someway, this decision is aging even worse than expected after Bosnia's coach called out Nurkić in advance of Eurobasket 2025 because he's "out of shape and can barely run."

"The only way Utah comes out of this ahead, or looking remotely sensible, is if the big man eventually gives back more money than Sexton would have in a buyout—or if, for some reason, this was the cost of convincing the Charlotte Hornets not to draft Bailey."

A rough and brutally honest assessment of the Jazz's decision-making process, but it doesn't come without strong reasoning.